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The Truth Shall Set You Free,
Propaganda-Gate Marches On
By Anthony Wade
February 18, 2005
- There has been a never ending drumbeat from the right that
there is a liberal media bias. While this may have been true
decades ago, it has not been true in recent times. The recent
Propaganda-Gate stories have proven beyond all doubt that today’s
media is but a toothless version of it’s former self. What they
truly reveal is what is becoming a dangerous prospect for all
Americans. Without a truly free press, we are left far too
vulnerable to a government that already is precipitously too
unaccountable.
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- The “mainstream” media is in bad shape these days. They have
been hamstrung on both ends. From the Bush administration, they
have been bullied and threatened. Veteran reporters have been
banned from the press corps for simply having the temerity of
asking a fair question of the Teflon President. The press corps
has been given instructions on what can and cannot be asked on
visits to military bases. They have had their press access removed
for no real reasons, other than partisanship. We must all
understand that this is livelihood for most of these folks.
Without the access, they have no quotes, no stories, no jobs.
Thus, they must try to adjust, conform, or even sell-out. The
bottom line is any real journalist in the press corps for the past
two years KNEW that Jeff Gannon was not a real journalist. They
KNEW he sounded like a plant. They KNEW he was wasting everyone’s
time but not ONE of them had the guts to do their job and
investigate who he was, and what he was doing with such close
access to the president and this administration. NOT ONE. The only
rationale I can figure is fear. This administration has made its
reputation on ruining journalists so investigating a potential
plant, someone who was relied upon by the administration, could be
career-suicide. Think that is over-dramatic? Ask Maureen Dowd, who
revealed today that her pass was revoked as soon as this
administration came into power, for no reason. So instead of
making waves, they sat by and allowed this miscreant to infect the
press pool, to ask the most inane, softball questions, and to drag
their journalistic integrity down into the sewer.
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- As if that was not bad enough, the “mainstream” media gets it
from the other side as well. They get it from their ownership.
Ownership of today’s mainstream media is decidedly pro-Bush. Now,
a lot of that might have to do with the deregulation that Bush
favors, which allows for increased profits, at the expense of any
transparency and competition in media. Ten years ago, you never
would have seen the NY Daily News publish a Bill O’Reilly column,
but there he is today, despite the recent sex-scandals. When you
look at cable news, that is where ownership clearly instills a
conservative-media bias. Fox News is a propaganda arm of the White
House, but they are a known entity, and as such can only do
limited damage. They have their viewership and they tune in to
hear the distorted views of the Bush administration being passed
off as news. The REAL damage Fox News does is it makes all other
cable news appear mainstream, when they are really “Fox-Lite.”
MSNBC runs people like Joe Scarborough, a former GOP Congressman,
as a news host and they just signed Tucker Carlson to balance out
the king of Softball, Chris Matthews. CNN has been exposed as
being a shill for this administration as well (http://opednews.com/wade_021105_blitzer_shill.htm).
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- So, what you have is “mainstream” media being beaten down from
both sides. They are left with thinking that reporting is simply
regurgitating what is told to them by administration officials.
Just this past week, we saw an “exclusive” interview by Sean
Hannity of Karl Rove. Hannity, ever the whore of this
administration, asked no journalistic questions and simply allowed
a Rove infomercial for the entire half-hour. This is what passes
for news in latter-day America. It is repulsive. After Jeff Gannon
resigned, Wolf Blitzer of CNN had Gannon on for an “exclusive.” In
this 10 minute fluff piece we saw Wolf accept that excuse of using
the fake name of Jeff Gannon because it was easier to pronounce
than his real name, Jim Guckert. We saw Wolf ask no follow-up
questions to Gannon’s lie about Talon News being a legitimate
organization. We saw no inquiry into Gannon’s connection to the
Valerie Plame story, which has treasonous implications. Lastly, in
this ten-minute Gannon infomercial, we saw Wolf refuse to
investigate the seedy names of the websites founded by Gannon, as
he accepted his lame excuse of never having hosted the sites. Just
one day later it was revealed that Gannon had hosted the sites,
had posted 47 pornographic self-pictures, and that he was indeed a
$1,200 per-weekend gay prostitute. Instead, Wolf passed off this
“exclusive” as journalism, when all it really turned out to be was
a free ten minutes of air time for the discredited Gannon. This is
what passes for journalism today. It is disgusting.
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- So, as the Gannon story was breaking close to two weeks ago,
we saw only one group of people interested in the festering issue
and that was the new media. The “mainstream” media sat on their
hands. They really had no choice when you look at the situation
they were in. By covering the story they would have to cover the
fact that they ignored it for two years and were scooped yet again
by the new media in this country. Instead, what we see now is some
of the mainstream media coming out and having to address it. When
it first broke, there was criticism of the “bloggers” for having
to go after poor Mr. Gannon’s personal life. The attempt was to
discredit the bloggers, and portray Gannon as the victim. Then the
story got a little more twisted. Gannon turned out to be Guckert
and questions were raised about how he got into the press corps
without credentials and with a fake name. Mainstream media again
tried to downplay the angle, saying he only got day passes and he
worked for an online news service. Now today we find out that the
first time Gannon actually was in a White House press conference
was the month before Talon News was even in business. It seems
that every time the “mainstream” media gets involved it is only to
try and excuse or downplay this incident, and then it blows up in
their face. They downplayed the website hostings of such congenial
sites as “hotmilitarystud.com” only to find out that Gannon was
actually selling his gay sexual favors for $1,200 per weekend. The
story is not Gannon anymore; it is why the “mainstream” media is
trying to downplay any harm this story might do to this
administration instead of investigating it to see where it leads.
That is the story.
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- Take the case of David Corn. Corn has long been on the fringe
of mainstream and new media. He has written a fine book exposing
the lies of this president and coined my favorite term about Bush,
which is that he “mugs the truth.” Corn is a bit of an enigma
though. Every time he seems mainstream, he acts new media, and
vice-a-versa. Yesterday, he finally weighed in on the Gannon
situation, which can be found here:
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http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2196
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- This article may as well have been written by CNN or Fox News
in its attempts to downplay what should be an incredibly important
story. For summary purposes, the Gannon story can now be summed up
as follows:
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- A man who used a fake name, worked for a fake news agency, was
granted free and unfettered access to the President of the United
States and his representatives for the apparent only purpose of
asking partisan questions designed to set up the administration to
propagandize. Furthermore, this is during a post-911 age, where
the same White House routinely denies real reporters the same
access. Lastly, this man owes over $20,000 in back taxes from the
1990s and has now been confirmed as being a male prostitute,
charging $1,200 per weekend for his sexual services.
-
- Is this a worthy story? You have got to be kidding me. There
are multiple angles that are worthy stories. Can you imagine what
would have happened to Bill Clinton had this break under his
administration? You have the propaganda angle of the
administration, in the wake of Armstrong Williams and Maggie
Gallagher, where it appears that Bush has now planted a fake
reporter in his own press pool. You have the angle of how
credentialing is done by this administration when a man using a
fake name is vetted as ok while a seasoned, respected reporter
such as Maureen Dowd is denied. You have the angle of how Gannon
got into his first press conference when his fake news agency had
not even been in business yet. You have the strange relationship
angle to McClellan who seemed to know “Jeff”. Lastly, you have the
sex angles which are varied and disturbing. Originally when I was
covering this developing story I stayed away from the sex angles
because they were unproven and the propaganda angle was far more
disturbing. After seeing the pornography of Jeff Gannon, I realize
that both stories have merit. This administration has made a
living off of being anti-gay and pro-family values so the stench
of the hypocrisy of this story needs answering. How did a male
hooker gain such close access to the president and the chief
proponent for “moral” values?
-
- Amidst all of these angles is the story of this year. It is
the story that reveals some blatant hypocrisy of this
administration. It is a story that is wrapped up in other stories
that reveal an attempt by this administration to “create” the news
for you. To say this story is not important is to clearly show
whose side you are lining up on. On the side of the people, is the
new media that refused to be deterred by the mainstream that cried
foul because they all got caught with their collective pants down.
It is the side that sees Jeff Gannon for what he truly is, a
microcosm. He is a symptom of a diseased system. He is everything
that is wrong in media today, because he is not media, he is
propaganda.
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- On the other side is the state-sponsored journalism that Bush
desires. It is for “exclusive” infomercials that pass as news. It
is people being paid hundreds of thousands of YOUR tax dollars to
tell you what to think. It is the side that wants you to believe
that this story is no big deal. That Jeff Gannon is a non-story.
It appears that David Corn has aligned himself with the
state-sponsored journalism side.
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- The following are direct quotes from the latest Corn article
referenced above (in italics) with my response, following each
comment:
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- “The blogosphere in recent months has become the piling-on-osphere.”
-
- Perhaps it has been so long since journalism was practiced
that Mr. Corn has forgotten what it looks like. This was not
“piling on”. What we had was some real investigative work being
done by bloggers to uncover the truth. One day we had a partisan
“journalist”. The next day we had a fake journalist. The next day
we had a fake news agency fronted by GOPUSA. The next day Gannon
turns out to be Guckert, and then he ends up as a male prostitute.
If people were unfairly judging him, or lying about him, then I
would agree that there was “piling on”. Searching for and
reporting about the truth is not “piling on”. It should be at the
heart of true journalism.
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- “When there is blood in the water--or on the keyboard--bloggers
rush in for the kill.”
-
- Again, Mr. Corn seems to overlooking the real journalism that
occurred with this case. Jeff Gannon lied about who he was. He
lied about his training. He decided to sell himself for $1,200 per
weekend. How exactly did anyone “rush in for the kill?”
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- “Yet the speed and drama of these trials-by-blog may be
cause for quasi-concern not unfettered celebration.”
-
- I would agree if bloggers speculate, or run with
unsubstantiated claims and report them as fact. There always is
that risk in blogger-land. Those concerns do not appear to be
warranted in this case however. Additionally, “mainstream” media
has lost nearly all of it’s credibility as well under this
administration. The failure to properly vet the WMD claims and
hype a war on false pretenses will be its legacy. For decades I
will have the vision of Katie Couric saying “Navy Seals rock!”
burned in my brain as being representative of where media is
heading.
-
- “But with the Gannon/Guckert case, I wonder if there was a
touch of blog-hysteria.”
-
- Are you kidding me? A gay prostitute gains access to the
president and his administration and is regularly called on to
pitch propaganda and you think it is hysteria? A moral values,
anti-gay president no less. During a post-911 administration that
scrutinizes everything. I would seriously ask Mr. Corn how he
thinks this story would be portrayed if this occurred under
Clinton. The fact is there is not enough hysteria about this
story.
-
- “But is it possible that significance of this odd tale was
inflated during the red-hot pursuit of this fellow?”
-
- No, not in the slightest. If the pursuit turned up nothing, I
would agree. With each passing day however the story unravels
further and we see the depths it is falling to. The story has its
own merits, which have nothing to do with the pursuit, which is of
the truth, not “this fellow.”
-
- “Gannon/Guckert's pursuers ought to be careful and note
that the problem with Gannon/Guckert was not that he was a
reporter with an obvious political bent but that he had weak
credentials and an iffy background.”
-
- Wrong, it is both, and far more. Is Mr. Corn condoning the
shilling of partisan positions in lieu of real journalism? This is
not the case of someone who may be left or right leaning asking a
fair question that highlights the side they lean to. That stuff
balances out in the end. Jeff Gannon asked asinine questions,
which only had one purpose and that was to spread propaganda. That
cannot be so casually accepted in a free society.
-
- “Gannon/Guckert's critics have portrayed him as a White
House plant. That could be an overstatement.”
-
- Could be? I guess so, could also not be. The way we used to
find out in this country is through investigative journalism. That
is the point. Was Gannon a plant? I don’t know. What I do know is
you will never find out writing articles that try to downplay the
importance of the possibility.
-
- “So Gannon/Guckert was not much help to the McClellan at
these briefings. If he asked McClellan an easy question, that
would not change the course of the entire briefing and save
McClellan from other reporters.”
-
- Is that really the point? Isn’t the point that the people’s
time not be wasted? Isn’t the point that no one should be allowed
to have access to the president to pitch propaganda, posing as
journalism? Did McClellan at least enjoy the brief respite? Of
course he did. This quote just seems to want to minimize the
effects instead of staying focused on the issue.
-
- “If he received preferential treatment from the White
House, my hunch is that he did so due to sloppiness on the part of
the press office or because he was viewed as simpatico.”
-
- I appreciate Mr. Corn’s hunches and would love to see him
investigate them to confirm or debunk them. Journalism and truth.
-
- “Gannon/Guckert, according to the record so far, was a bit
player in the Wilson affair. The leak he received was an
after-the-fact leak.”
-
- I point you to the “so far” portion of this quote. Two days
ago we thought that “so far” Gannon only hosted sites such as
“militarystud.com” for a business associate. Now, we know he
actually was selling his sexual services on them. Last week we
thought his real name “so far” was Gannon. Now we know he was
lying. That is the entire point of journalism.
-
- “It is not beyond belief that partisans in the White House
or on Capitol Hill saw Gannon/Guckert as a safe outlet. But it is
also possible his involvement in the Wilson affairs was more a
sideshow than anything else.”
-
- Absolutely. It is also possible that someone in the White
House leaked the memo to him. The same person who kept clearing
him for access he never should have had. Heck, anything is
possible. Through investigative journalism, we can hope to turn
what was possible, into what really happened.
-
- “The Gannon/Guckert affair--which has yielded serious
questions the White House needs to address--has generated much
chest-pounding within the world of liberal bloggers.”
-
- This seems like such a self-serving statement designed to make
the bloggers seem unprofessional. I do not recall seeing a lot of
chest pounding. I did a piece on how the new media had flexed its
collective muscles, but is that chest pounding? I don’t know. What
I do know is the mainstream media sat with this male hooker for
two years and watched him ask the most stupidest questions
imaginable and it took some lowly bloggers to do what they could
not, their job. Ok, now that was chest-pounding.
-
- In all seriousness to the mainstream, I mentioned at the start
of this article the horrible position they find themselves in.
-
- “I don't begrudge the bloggers their victory lap--but it
would not be good form to show too much glee. And Gannon/Guckert
might be a smaller prize than assumed. (He's no Dan Rather--or
Armstrong Williams.)”
-
- Dead wrong. Jeff Gannon is bigger than Rather. Not in name but
in importance. He is part of the same story as Williams, so I will
not compare the two. He is the heart of what is wrong in media and
what must be excised if we are to ever trust media again.
-
- “Yet it could be that this story--regrettably--is mostly
about a wannabe than the powers that be.
-
- Mr. Corn continues to minimize the story by deflecting the
attention from the true story. Jeff Gannon was a wannabe, no
argument there. He is not the story though and that is where Mr.
Corn misses the mark. The story is the powers that be. It is about
a government that is in the business of using tax dollars to buy
public opinion. It is about a government that fakes news stories.
It is about an administration that has a network of propaganda at
its disposal that it uses with impunity. It is about a White House
that can deny Maureen Dowd access to the White House Press Corps,
while allowing a male prostitute the same access.
-
- I do not pick on David Corn; I was only taken aback by the
decidedly administrative tone his article took. Dismissing this
story only serves one person, and that is Bush. I found it
difficult to understand how someone who did such a great expose on
the lies of Bush could get so easily snookered on this one.
-
- Either way, the myth of the liberal media bias is over. There
is a decidedly conservative media bias and it grows more and more
obvious every day. The only mainstream cable news host even
reporting this story is Keith Olbermann, the same one who was the
only person to report on the overwhelming evidence of fraud in the
presidential elections.
-
- People are lining up on two sides. On one side are the people
that want this story to just go away. They are in support of
government sponsored propaganda as news. They think that Sean
Hannity allowing Karl Rove to talk for a half an hour without any
journalistic questions being asked, is an “exclusive.” They think
that Wolf Blitzer allowing a liar to lie for ten minutes without
so much as a logical follow-up is an “exclusive.” They think that
a gay male prostitute pretending to be a reporter, asking softball
questions of the President of the United States is not a big deal
and people who question it are just being “hysterical”. They are
lining up to tell you what to think. They are lining up to package
your news for you. They are lining up to sell you their product.
Two years ago it was WMD. One year ago it was moral values. This
year it will be a social security scam. At its heart, there is
nothing journalistic about it, nothing honest about it, and
nothing real about it.
-
- On the other side, real people are lining up to try and
desperately hold onto the truth. They see Jeff Gannon as a cancer
in our system, but only a single cell of that cancer. He is not
the story. No matter how many naked pictures they find of him,
Jeff Gannon is not the story. The story is about an administration
that would allow a Jeff Gannon to become a story. It is about a
president that thinks the news is something he can manipulate,
package and sell you. It is about an administration that thinks it
can sweep the Jeff Gannon’s of their world under the rug and you
will let it happen. The bloggers and new media are lining up to
say no more. When you remove the cancer that is Jeff Gannon, there
will be another there willing to take his place unless you solve
the real problem. That problem has a name and it is propaganda.
The cure has always been there and has been used for centuries.
That cure is the truth and it shall set you free.
-
- Anthony Wade, a
contributing writer to
opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the
lies and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent
writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on
multiple websites. A Christian progressive and professional
Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr.
Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials
accountable for lies and excess.
Anthony Wade’s
Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Email
Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com
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